In our “ICM Trends to Watch” blog series, we explore the five key trends we’re keeping an eye on in 2024, and dissect the ways in which innovative technologies, evolving GTM (go-to-market) cultures, and more are impacting incentive compensation strategies and revenue performance management.

For such a mission-critical business process, the strategic opportunity afforded by incentive compensation has long been undervalued, while a lack of innovation and advancement with the systems available were barely enough to keep the lights on for finance, revenue operations, and sales leaders.

Fortunately, a purpose-built commission tool is no longer simply a means to an end.

The most forward-thinking ICM solutions today are helping organizations future-proof their revenue operations by turning compensation strategies into a lever for business growth. With the right program in place – including workflow automations, cross-functional visibility, and easily accessible real-time insights – revenue teams are now well-equipped to forecast and drive results.

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According to Deloitte’s 2023 Global Human Capital Trends survey, 93% of business leaders believe that using technology to improve outcomes and performance is important for success, but only 22% believe their own organization is technologically equipped to realize those benefits.

In addition, 42% of respondents believe technology will help drive better outcomes, and even better news, one in three report improved finance performance because of their approach to technology and team collaboration. Accordingly, the report’s authors suggest 

that, “Moving forward, you need to harness technologies that help your people and teams become the best possible versions of themselves. This means nudging them to learn new behaviors, correct old behaviors, and sharpen skills.”

They then go on to say that “Beyond the individual and team impact, this technology-human team collaboration can also drive impact through insights at scale. All this technology, whether it’s used for nudging, collaboration, training, or another purpose, creates data “exhaust.” This data is a powerful tool all on its own.”

By combining the right data sets with the right technology, the teams powering today’s forward-thinking organizations can access the robust reports and insights they need to make strategic business decisions. And this is of course true in ICM, where centralizing commissions data from disparate sources in one powerful processing and management platform can provide insights that help drive the business forward, highlighting areas for improvement for finance, revenue operations, and – of course – sales teams.

According to our State of Sales Compensation Report, 82% of sales reps surveyed agree that having visibility into potential earnings on new deals would significantly improve motivation, while 64% claim the ability to forecast potential commission earnings on future deals is essential to success in their role – and yet only 28% of reps today have visibility into potential earnings on new deals. By closing this gap, organizations can help their reps better understand how specific activities can impact both pipeline and payouts, and motivate the behaviors that will deliver the best business outcomes.

You can learn more about the top five trends redefining incentive compensation management in 2024 by downloading the full report.